Nowhere to Flee

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I lived in Baghdad for fifty-eight years. This is the
first time I ever left. Leaving Iraq
is like tearing my roots from Iraq.
All of my children were born there.I
brought all of them out-my sixteen children and grandchildren. After my wife's
nephew was strangled, we couldn't go out on the street.It was impossible to live there any
longer.I left behind my house, all my
furniture.I didn't leave behind my car
because it was already stolen a year ago.We didn't know where we were going, we just wanted to get out to save ourselves
and our children.

-Palestinian refugee, Trebil camp on the Iraqi border, April
30, 2006

I. Executive Summary

The security of the approximately 34,000 Palestinian
refugees in Iraq
has drastically deteriorated since the fall of the Saddam Hussein government in
April 2003.Militant groups, mostly
Shi`a, have targeted this predominantly Sunni minority community, attacking
their communal buildings, committing several dozen murders, and threatening
harm unless they immediately leave Iraq. Amidst the widespread
politically motivated and criminal violence in Iraq, Palestinians have been
targeted more than other minorities because of resentment of the privileges
Palestinians received during Saddam Hussein's rule, and suspicions that they
are supporting the insurgency.

The Iraqi government bears considerable responsibility for
the plight of the country's Palestinians.Elements of the Ministry of Interior have been implicated in the
arbitrary detention, torture, killing, and "disappearance" of
Palestinians.Despite their status as
refugees, Iraqi Palestinians have been subjected to new and extremely
burdensome registration requirements, providing a venue for bureaucratic
hostility.And unlike Iraqi citizens at
risk, who are largely able to find refuge abroad, Palestinians have nowhere to
flee: countries in the region (with rare, temporary exceptions) have kept their
borders firmly closed to fleeing Iraqi Palestinians.And the international community has done
little to help ease their plight.

Palestinian refugees in Iraq became a target for violence,
harassment, and eviction from their homes soon after the Iraqi government fell
to U.S.-led forces in 2003.Unknown
assailants fired upon Palestinian housing projects with assault weapons and
mortar rounds, and threw bombs into Palestinian homes.A particular point of contention had been the
government's provision to Palestinians of subsidized housing, often at the
expense of mostly Shi`a landlords who were paid a pittance in rent by the Iraqi
government.Immediately after the fall
of the Saddam government, Shi`a landlords forcibly evicted their Palestinian
tenants.

Since then, conditions for Palestinian refugees in Iraq
continue to worsen. The February 22, 2006 bombing that destroyed one of
Shi`ism's holiest shrines, al-`Askariyya mosque in Samarra, led to a wave of sectarian killings
that continues to date.Alleged Shi`a
militants attacked Palestinian housing projects in Baghdad and killed at least
ten Palestinians, among them the two brothers of the former Palestinian attach
in Baghdad, who were kidnapped from their father's home on February 23 and
found dead at a morgue two days later, their bodies mutilated.On the evening of the Samarra bombing,
unidentified persons murdered Samir Khalid al-Jayyab, a fifty-year-old
Palestinian, hitting him over the head with a sword and shooting him some
twenty times.On March 16, unidentified
armed men strangled to death Muhammad Hussain Sadiq, a twenty-seven-year-old
Palestinian barber, together with two Sunni Iraqis in the Shu`la neighborhood
of Baghdad.

In mid-March, a militant group calling itself the "Judgment
Day Brigades" distributed leaflets in Palestinian neighborhoods, accusing the
Palestinians of collaborating with the insurgents, and stating, "We warn that
we will eliminate you all if you do not leave this area for good within ten
days."The killings and death threats
put the Palestinian community in a "state of shock," according to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and led Palestinian National
Authority President Mahmud Abbas and the High Commissioner for Refugees Antnio
Guterres to each call upon Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to intervene to stop
the killings of Palestinians.Fear
continues to grip Palestinian communities in Baghdad,
and thousands more Palestinians in Iraq are eager to leave the country.And
the killings continue: UNHCR reported at least six more killings of Iraqi
Palestinians in Baghdad
and renewed death threats against Iraqi Palestinians in the last two weeks of
May.

The post-Saddam Iraqi governments have done little to
protect the Iraqi Palestinians a community whose members were given the same
rights as citizens, minus the actual citizenship and the right to own property
and some elements within government have actively contributed to this
community's insecurity. Notably, in October 2005 the minister of displacement
and migration called on the government to expel all Palestinian refugees to Gaza, accusing
Palestinians of involvement in terrorism. Iraqi Palestinians consistently told
Human Rights Watch that Ministry of Interior authorities frequently harass and
discriminate against Palestinian refugees in Iraq, singling them out for arrest
and falsely accusing them of terrorism. One Palestinian who had been detained
at the Kut military base southeast of Baghdad
for sixty-eight days described torture he believes he suffered simply for being
Palestinian: the guards would enter the detention room and ask for "the
Palestinian," and gave him regular beatings and attached live electrodes to his
penis. A lawyer for a group of four Palestinians arrested on terrorism charges
in May 2005 said his clients had suffered beatings with chains, electric
shocks, cigarette burns on their faces, and being placed in a room with
standing water carrying live electric current.Iraqi National Guard troops arrested a seventy-five-year-old Palestinian
man in April 2005, and he remains "disappeared," with the suspicion that they
killed him in custody.

Where previously Palestinian refugees in Iraq had little trouble obtaining
and maintaining their residency status, the Ministry of Interior ordered
Palestinian refugees to obtain short-term residency permits, treating them as
non-resident foreigners instead of as recognized refugees. The residency
requirements are onerous, requiring Palestinian refugees to bring all members
of their families to Ministry of Interior offices to renew the permits, which
can take days or even weeks, and the new permits are only valid for one to two
months.

Palestinian refugees seeking to flee Iraq face far greater obstacles
than do Iraqi citizens, including other minority communities under threat, such
as Mandaeans and Chaldeans. Neighboring countries like Jordan, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, and Syria
refuse to admit them.Israel in general does not allow Palestinian
refugees to return to Israel
or the OccupiedPalestinianTerritories.And resettlement options in other countries
have been largely unavailable to them.

The attacks in 2003 on Palestinian refugees led to the
internal displacement of thousands of Palestinian refugees, and the flight of
hundreds to neighboring Jordan.
Jordan initially blocked the
border for Iraqi Palestinians, then allowed a few hundred into the barren,
isolated al-Ruwaishid refugee camp eighty-five kilometers inside Jordan
from the Iraqi border.Other Iraqi
Palestinians remained at the equally barren Karama camp located inside the
no-man's land (NML) at the Iraqi-Jordanian border for more than two years,
until the Jordanian authorities closed the camp in 2005 and relocated them to
al-Ruwaishid camp. For the past three years, several hundred Palestinian
refugees have remained virtual prisoners in al-Ruwaishid camp. Some 250 of them
elected to return to the dangerous conditions in Iraq rather than remain in the camp
with no solution to their plight in prospect.

From March to May 2006, a group of nearly 200 Iraqi
Palestinians was stuck on the Iraqi side of the Jordanian border, after Jordan refused them entry and armed Iraqi border
guards forcibly pushed them back into Iraq.Following a request from the Palestinian
Authority's foreign minister, Syria allowed these Palestinians into Syria, but
again closed its borders to Palestinian refugees immediately afterwards.

Human Rights Watch calls upon the states bordering Iraq to open their borders to Palestinian refugees
from Iraq
and to afford them the same opportunities to flee persecution and generalized
violence that they accord to Iraqis.The
current Palestinian refugee crisis in Iraq
needs a regional approach, and all countries in the region including Israel and the Gulf States
should participate in sharing the burden of accepting and housing the
Palestinian refugees fleeing Iraq.
The broader international community should also assist governments in the
region by sharing the burden, either through providing financial assistance or
through third-country resettlement.

II. Recommendations

To the Iraqi Authorities, including the Ministry of
Interior and Ministry of Displacement and Migration

Publicly affirm Iraq's commitment to hosting
Palestinian refugees in secure and humane conditions, and that abuses against
Iraqi Palestinian refugees will not be tolerated and will be investigated and
prosecuted;

Take all appropriate measures to end torture,
"disappearances," summary killings, and other abuses by Iraqi security forces,
and investigate and punish such abuses. Investigate whether Iraqi Palestinians
are being targeted for abuse and take appropriate action against the perpetrators;

Ensure that Iraqi Palestinians are officially
treated in a way appropriate to their status as recognized refugees, and cancel
burdensome registration requirements imposed on them by the Ministry of
Interior's Department of Residency.

To the United States and the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq

Assist the Iraqi government with providing
security to Iraqi Palestinian refugees in Iraq, and monitor the treatment of
Iraqi Palestinians by Iraqi forces.Ensure that abuses committed against Iraqi Palestinians by Iraqi forces
are investigated and punished by the appropriate authorities.

To the Governments of Jordan, Syria, and Other Countries in the
Region

Recognize that Iraqi Palestinians are a
particularly vulnerable population in Iraq,
and keep borders open to Iraqi Palestinians fleeing Iraq;

Ensure that no Iraqi Palestinian refugee is
subjected to refoulement, either at the border (by refusing to grant
access) or after entering the host country;

Ensure that government agencies treat Iraqi
Palestinian refugees within your borders with dignity and respect for their
human rights, including their right to freedom of movement within the host
country;

Provide protection and assistance to all Iraqi
Palestinians within your border, with the cooperation and financial assistance
of the international community;

Countries in the region not hosting Iraqi
Palestinian refugee populations should engage in burden-sharing with the host
countries through humanitarian assistance and financial contributions;

Permit Iraqi Palestinian men married to women
from countries in the region to enter their spouse's home country with their
families.

To the Government of Israel

In the absence of a resolution of the broader
Palestinian refugee issue, permit Iraqi Palestinian refugees with direct ties
to Gaza to
return to areas now administered by the Palestinian National Authority.

To the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner For Refugees

In coordination with the United Nations
Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), closely monitor and report on attacks and
abuses against Palestinians in Iraq,
and their access to asylum and other aspects of their treatment within the
region;

Continue to advocate for a regional commitment
from neighboring countries to allow Iraqi Palestinian refugees to enter their
territories and to treat Iraqi Palestinian refugees in conformity with
international standards;

Secure resettlement places in countries outside
the region, with the active cooperation of the international community,
particularly the governments of the United States
and the United Kingdom.
Afford those Iraqi Palestinian refugees who are unable to integrate locally in
the region, to return to their place of origin, or to return to Iraq, resettlement
places in third countries;

Insist that the relevant authorities in Iraq, including
the Iraqi security forces and the U.S.-led Multinational Forces, take the
necessary steps to ensure the safety of Iraqi Palestinian refugees and
protection of their rights.

To Donors and the International Community

Urge governments of neighboring states to keep
their borders open to Iraqi Palestinians fleeing persecution and violence in
Iraq, and insist that Iraqi Palestinians fleeing Iraq are treated in accordance
with international standards;

Donor states should uphold their legal and
humanitarian obligations to share responsibility for refugees by providing
financial and humanitarian support to protection and assistance activities for
Iraqi Palestinians fleeing Iraq;

The international community should provide
third-country resettlement possibilities for Iraqi Palestinians who are unable
or unwilling to return to Iraq
or to their place of origin, and who cannot safely remain with a secure refugee
status in countries in the region.

III. Background: The Palestinian Refugees in Iraq

Iraq,
like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon,
and Egypt, has played host
to a significant Palestinian refugee population since the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli
war that caused large-scale displacement of Palestinians from Israel.[1] Unlike
those states, Iraq did not sign an agreement with the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), established in
1949, preferring instead to address the assistance needs of the Palestinian
refugees itself. There are no accurate statistics for the Palestinian refugee
community in Iraq, but most
policy makers, including UNHCR and the Iraqi authorities, estimate the pre-2003
war Palestinian refugee population of Iraq at 34,000.[2]

The Palestinian refugee population in Iraq can be roughly
divided into four groups: Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled during
the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli conflict;[3]
Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled during the 1967 conflict;
Palestinians who fled or were expelled from Kuwait and other Gulf States
following the 1991 Gulf War, when Yasser Arafat's public support for the Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait inflamed anti-Palestinian sentiments; and a significant
number of Palestinians from other Arab states who had come to work or had
resettled in Iraq.

Almost the entire Palestinian population in Iraq lives in the capital, Baghdad.Prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, approximately 4,000 Palestinians
lived in the northern city of Mosul, and an
estimated 700 Palestinians lived in the southern city of Basra.[4]
A large percentage of Iraq's
Palestinians live in the following neighborhoods of Baghdad:
al-Mashtal, Baghdad
al-Jadida, al-Salam, al-Dura, Karrada al-Sharqiyya, al-Batawin,
al-Za`faraniyya, al-Baladiyyat, and al-Hurriyya, although others were dispersed
in private housing throughout the city. Many Palestinians live in low-rise
apartment buildings built by the Iraqi government. Some families live in
government shelters, such as former schools. In al-Za`faraniyya, for instance,
eighty families lived in a former school for the blind, and another eighty
families lived in a former orphanage. In some neighborhoods, Palestinian
families rented private homes.[5]

During the 1948-49 war, the Iraqi army fought in the area
from Haifa to
Jenin, and when it withdrew, took some Palestinian refugees with it. (As a
result, many Iraqi Palestinian families are originally from Haifa,
in what is now Israel.)
The Iraqi government housed thousands of arriving Palestinian refugees in
schools and military camps as an emergency measure. Soon after, the Iraqi
government began constructing temporary "shelter residential systems" to house
the Palestinian refugees. Thereafter, in the 1970s, the Iraqi government
constructed housing complexes for Palestinian refugees with basic services such
as water, sewage, and electricity. The conditions in the shelters were poor,
and the government-constructed housing was inadequate for the rapidly growing
Palestinian population.In response to
housing needs, the Iraqi government began to rent private housing for
Palestinian refugees, providing the housing free of charge.An estimated 63 percent of the Palestinian
refugees in Iraq
benefited from such government-provided housing.[6]

As U.N. sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War crippled Iraq's
economy, causing massive inflation, the Iraqi government froze the rents it was
paying to the landlords of homes occupied by the Palestinians, as it did with
many other government payments. By the end of the 1990s, the mostly Shi`a landlords
were receiving next to nothing for the homes occupied by Palestinians many of
the Palestinians interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 2003 stated that their
rent (paid by the government) amounted to the equivalent of less than U.S.$1 a
month. Iraqi law prohibited landlords from breaking rental agreements.[7] Landlords
forced to rent to Palestinians for inconsequential sums were, in effect,
deprived of their property. In 1999, a group of Shi`a landlords from al-Tubji
neighborhood of Baghdad
tried to challenge the unfair agreements in court. They lost their case.[8]

The favorable housing arrangements Palestinians enjoyed was
only one source of the resentment some Iraqis held against them. In order to
improve his standing as an Arab leader, Saddam Hussein in 2001 announced the
formation of a new paramilitary force, the Jaysh
al-Quds (Jerusalem Army), with the aim of "liberating" Jerusalem. Iraqi males of military age,
particularly Shi`a and Kurds, were often forced to "volunteer" for service in
the force. In addition, Saddam Hussein openly provided "martyr" payments of
U.S.$25,000 to families of Palestinian suicide bombers and U.S.$10,000 to the
families of other Palestinians killed in the Intifada.[9]
Iraqis suffering under the strict sanctions regime reportedly resented Saddam
Hussein's decision in 2001 to send 1 billion to aid Palestinians throughout
the Middle East.[10]

The Iraqi government exempted Palestinians from military
service, including in the Jerusalem Army, but subjected them to certain
restrictions. Since 1950, the government provided Palestinians in Iraq with
refugee travel documents, but not Iraqi passports.[11]Those who came in the aftermath of 1948-49
and their Iraqi-born descendants remained registered as refugees, and did not
become citizens. (This was the standard practice throughout the Middle East,
with the exception of Jordan,
which granted Palestinian refugees Jordanian citizenship.)[12]
The travel documents made travel outside Iraq very difficult, and the Iraqi
Palestinians were also subjected to the same foreign travel restrictions the
Iraqi government imposed on Iraqis generally in the 1990s, such as the
requirement to pay 400,000 Iraqi dinars (approximately U.S.$200) to obtain an
exit visa.In early 2000, the Saddam
Hussein government announced a new policy to grant Palestinians who had resided
in the country since 1948 the right to own property in Baghdad.[13]
However, Iraqi Palestinians interviewed by Human Rights Watch for this report
said that, until 2002, legal restrictions prohibiting them from registering
homes, cars, or telephone lines in their own name remained in force.[14]

IV. The 2003 War and the Backlash against Iraqi
Palestinians

We are afraid all the
time.We have to keep watch over our
houses night and day. We are waiting for something to happen, and the longer we
are here, the more likely it is that something will happen. Why should we wait?
Frankly, we don't want to stay here. We want to go to another country. We need
urgent help from UNRWA.

It is true that when
Saddam was here, we felt safe, but we have not been living in the paradise some
people imagine. Look at our homes. They are not fit for families to live in,
and these are the better homes. We can show you far worse places where children
are living next to raw sewage. In winter, our homes become flooded knee deep
because there is no drainage system.

It is true that the
Iraqi government in the past forced Iraqis to rent us homes at very low prices,
but that is not our fault. At the time [1958-1963], when `Abd al-Karim Qasim[15]
was here, the rents we paid were five dinars a month. That was real money then,
but it gradually lost its value and especially after 1991, with the sanctions
and the economy suffering, that rent was meaningless. The Iraqi government did
not raise these rents, and we can understand the house owners feel resentful,
but this is not the way to deal with the problem. Please find us a solution
before something really serious happens.[16]

Almost as soon as the government fell in April 2003, Iraqi
Palestinians as well as other non-Iraqi nationals (Iranian Kurds, Sudanese,
Somalis, and others), became subject to intense harassment, violent attack, and
forced evictions from their homes. The harassment and the violence appears to
have two primary causes: resentment by Iraqis for the government's perceived
preferential treatment of the Palestinians (many poor Iraqis resented the fact
that the government provided Palestinian refugees with subsidized housing,
while they as Iraqis had to fend for themselves), and attempts by mostly Shi`a
landlords to reclaim the properties the government had forced them to rent to
Palestinians virtually for free.

Physical Attacks and Threats

Iraqi Palestinians whom Human Rights Watch interviewed in
the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Saddam Hussein government in 2003
complained of attacks on their homes, threats, and other forms of harassment by
Iraqis.Many physical attacks were
accompanied by verbal insults that indicated the attackers resented the
Palestinians for their perceived preferential treatment under Saddam Hussein,
and sought their expulsion from Iraq.

For example, Nazima Sulaiman, a fifty-year-old woman from Baghdad's al-Hurriyya neighborhood, recalled that on the
day Baghdad
fell, fifteen armed men came to her home and told her family: "This home is for
Iraqis; you own nothing.Saddam was
protecting you; go and ask Saddam to find you another home."Two days after the threats, on April 11,
2003, unknown persons threw two bombs into Nazima's home, completely destroying
it and killing her seven-month-old grandchild, Rawand Muhammad Sulaiman.Three of her children and three cousins were
so severely wounded that they required hospitalization.[17]

Other Palestinians reported similar threats and attacks
throughout Baghdad,
as the cases below illustrate.

Murtada M., a taxi driver living at the "Palestinian
Buildings" in al-Za`faraniyya neighborhood of Baghdad, which housed some eighty
Palestinian families, recounted how a group of four armed men arrived at their
compound on April 22, 2003, and entered their school.The Palestinian residents repulsed the attack
by firing on the men, but unknown civilians then came to the compound to
protest, yelling "Leave al-Za`faraniyya like you left Palestine!"[18]

Samir, a baker living in the Baladiyyat "Palestinian
Buildings," recounted that armed men came to the compound five days after the
fall of Baghdad, shooting and demanding that the Palestinians leave, and
blaming them for the war: "It is because of you," they yelled, "Saddam gave you
one million euro and us nothing!" Samir moved to al-Hurriyya neighborhood with
his family, but again came under attack, with armed men protesting outside the
refugee center and telling the Palestinians to "Get Out!"[19]

Muhammad, a customs official who lived with his family in an
apartment in one of three "Palestinian Buildings" (home to forty-five
Palestinian families) in the Ta'mim neighborhood of Baghdad, recounted how they
had faced ten days of shooting and threats before they decided to flee on April
21, 2003.He told Human Rights Watch:

They were holding Kalashnikovs [assault rifles] and they
shot at the buildings. We were inside, and they sometimes entered the buildings
into the corridor. They were drunk. They were threatening us, saying they'll
bring bombs. "We'll burn you," they said. "We want you to leave. This is our
country. You liked Saddam, and now he's gone."[20]

Expulsion of Palestinian Families from their Homes

Many of the Iraqi Palestinian families interviewed by Human
Rights Watch in 2003 said that threats, harassment, and violence during rent
disputes were the primary reasons for their departure from Baghdad
or their internal displacement within Baghdad.
Expulsions of Palestinian refugees from their homes began almost as soon as the
U.S.-led invasion began. In many cases, armed Shi`a landlords expelled their
Palestinian tenants, while in other cases, armed Iraqis attempted to expel
Palestinians from government-subsidized homes in order to seize the homes for
themselves.

Ibrahim Khalil Ibrahim, a sixty-two-year-old retired
businessman, told Human Rights Watch how he had lost the home he had rented for
twenty-two years:

The Iraqis took the opportunity of the war to get us out
of our home.They came at the beginning
of the war, the owners came with guns.They said, "Get out of our home. Because there is no government, we need
our home. Now we will put a bullet in each of your heads" meaning me and the
kids. So we thought, there is a war, so if they kill us no one will protect
us. So we left and ran away. Not only us, but a lot of people. They kicked out
anyone who was not Iraqi, their whole families. Once Saddam was gone, we had
no one to protect us.[21]

Khairiyya Shafiq `Ali's family also lost their
government-subsidized apartment in Baghdad,
after groups of armed Shi`a men threatened them during four visits to the
apartment: "They threatened they would empty their guns in our heads. They
started [coming] after the fall of the government, approximately one week
after. They shot bullets at the house. They told us, 'Saddam is gone, you are
nothing here. You own nothing in Iraq, if you want to leave, take
only your clothes.'"[22]

Twenty-four-year-old Jihad J. gave an almost identical
account of how armed men had evicted his family from their rent-free home in
al-Tubji area of Baghdad,
where they had lived since the 1980s. Two days after the fall of the Saddam
Hussein government, a group of five armed men broke down the door of their
apartment and entered:

They told us to get out or they would kill us, and they
had their guns pointed at us. They were telling us to get out [of Iraq], that Iraq was their country. They
insulted Saddam, saying he had tortured them because of us, and things like
this. They gave us twenty-four hours to leave.[23]

The forced evictions of Palestinians occurred all over Baghdad, reaching even
the few Palestinians living in private housing for which they paid market-rate
rents. Wisam A., a crane operator with a wife and four children, told Human
Rights Watch that he was forced to leave his rented home in al-Khadra'
neighborhood of Baghdad, where few Palestinians lived, and for which he paid
the substantial rent of 400,000 Iraqi dinars per year (about U.S.$200).Armed men surrounded his home on three
different occasions, shooting in the air and demanding that the family leave.
Although Wisam and a Shi`a neighbor managed to scare off the armed men by
shooting automatic weapons in the air, Wisam decided to leave his home after
the third attack, on April 25, 2003.

Many owners of apartments occupied by Palestinians gave the
Palestinians eviction notices almost immediately after the fall of the Saddam
Hussein government, explaining that they wanted to get market-rate rents for
their apartments. "Fatima" (not her real name), a forty-two-year-old resident
of a seven-apartment building occupied by Palestinian families in Baghdad
al-Jadida, explained how she and six other families lived rent-free in
apartments for which the government paid the owner an annual rent of 20,000 Iraqi
dinars (about U.S.$10). As soon as the government fell, the owner demanded that
all of the Palestinian families leave.[24]

Sabir Jamil Shahin, a thirty-six-year-old father of three,
was forced to give up his three-room apartment in al-Mashtal neighborhood when
the landlord increased the rent from 20,000 Iraqi dinars (U.S.$10) to 100,000
Iraqi dinars (U.S.$50) a month after the war: "He told others he wanted to get
rid of us. So I decided to leave before anything worse happened."[25]

According to the Baghdad
office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), between April 9 and May
7, 2003, some 344 Palestinian families comprising 1,612 individuals were either
expelled or were forced to leave their homes in Baghdad.[26]The Iraqi Red Crescent Society and other
humanitarian organizations provided many of the families with temporary
accommodation at a makeshift relief center located at the Haifa Sports Club in
al-Baladiyyat neighborhood. As of May 7, 2003, the Haifa Sports Club provided
accommodation to 107 families comprising some 500 people in tents provided by
the Iraqi Red Crescent Society on the Club's football pitch.[27] By
November 2003, the population of displaced Palestinians at the Haifa Sports
Club had reportedly grown to some 1,500 persons, housed in 400 tents.[28]

V. 2003 Flight from Iraq and the Jordanian Response

Initial Flight and the Establishment of
al-Ruwaishid and al-Karama Camps

The harassment and physical attacks faced by Palestinians
and other third-country nationals in Iraq
in the immediate aftermath of the war caused many to seek refuge in Jordan.
Most of the Palestinians fleeing Iraq preferred to go to Jordan because of its
relative proximity, the similarity of its culture, its relative freedoms and
openness, family ties, and because most of the other countries bordering Iraq
kept their borders firmly closed, especially to Palestinians.[29]

Prior to the 2003 war, Jordan had prepared for a refugee
influx with the help of UNHCR and local and international aid organizations.[30] While Jordan is not a
party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol,[31]
it still has obligations under international law regarding the treatment of
refugees. Customary law on refugee protection provides that the prohibition on refoulement (return) "applies to the moment
at which asylum seekers present themselves for entry," and includes
non-rejection at the border.[32]

With the agreement of the Jordanian authorities, UNHCR and
its humanitarian partners prepared two camps inside Jordan's border, equipped
to house up to 10,000 refugees: one camp for Iraqi refugees (al-Ruwaishid Camp
A) and a second camp for third-country nationals fleeing Iraq (al-Ruwaishid
Camp B, administered by the International Organization for Migration).Third-country nationals Sudanese, Ethiopians,
Eritreans, and others began arriving as early as March 20, 2003, and were
quickly moved to al-Ruwaishid Camp B. Because the third-country nationals were
quickly moved out of Jordan,
Ruwaishid Camp B was soon closed, leaving only one camp for Iraqi refugees at
al-Ruwaishid.

As violence against Palestinians rose in Iraq, hundreds
of Palestinians started moving towards the Jordanian border, together with
Iranian Kurdish refugees who had come under similar attacks in their al-Tash
refugee camp outside Ramadi. However, Jordan closed its borders to both
these refugee communities seeking safety, forcing them to remain inside the
no-man's-land (NML) between the Iraqi and Jordanian borders. By April 20, at
least 1,000 Palestinians and Iranian Kurdish refugees were stuck in the
NML.

After protests from UNHCR and other international actors,
the Jordanian authorities allowed some 550 Palestinians to enter Jordan on May 1, 2003, placing them in
al-Ruwaishid CampA. Before allowing them
to enter, however, the Jordanian authorities forced the Palestinians to sign a
vaguely worded waiver, stating that they would return to Iraq as soon as the current crisis
was over and the situation stabilized.[33]
The Jordanians did not allow the Iranian Kurds to enter some 1,136 of them
remained in the NML, ultimately housed in a makeshift camp that became known as
al-Karama, after the name of the Jordanian border post, and which operated
until 2005. The opening of the border was a one-time concession by the
Jordanian authorities: after letting in the Palestinians to al-Ruwaishid camp, Jordan soon
again closed its borders to Iraqi Palestinians, and the few who managed to
cross the Iraqi border after that were kept at al-Karama camp inside the
NML.

Al-Ruwaishid camp

Since entering al-Ruwaishid camp in May 2003, the Iraqi
Palestinians who have fled Baghdad
have lived a harsh life in the Jordanian desert, with little hope of escaping
from their internment at the guarded camp. The Palestinians were used to urban
lifestyles and were not prepared for life in the desert. Children make up 60
percent of the camp population.

Conditions inside the desert camp are harsh. Frequent
windstorms whip fine sand into every tent, and some of the humanitarian aid
workers have resorted to wearing goggles in order to work in the difficult
conditions. Respiratory problems among camp residents are omnipresent, and the
heat in summer is unbearable. Three years after their arrival, the refugees are
still housed in simple tents and structures of wooden frames and sewn-together
blankets. During an April 2006 visit, Human Rights Watch witnessed the
aftermath of a windstorm that had overturned a trailer housing Jordanian border
officials, putting three of them in hospital.

For the past three years, the residents of al-Ruwaishid camp
have been virtual prisoners.A fence
surrounds the camp, which Jordanian police guard. They grant the refugees
permission to leave the camp to go shopping in al-Ruwaishid town, but otherwise
the refugees cannot leave the camp. When they require hospital treatment, the
police maintain constant guard, even over their hospital beds. Visits by anyone
relatives, friends, journalists, humanitarian or human rights officials to al-Ruwaishid
camp require the Jordanian minister of interior's prior permission. The
Jordanian mother of three Iraqi Palestinian children (two of them minors) whom
the Jordanian authorities will not allow to join her in Amman, has to obtain such permission before
being able to visit her children in the camp (the plight of this family, the
Haddats, during these children's earlier confinement at al-Karama camp is
described below).[34]

The blanket prohibition on persons leaving refugee camps
violates Jordan's
obligations under international law. The International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, to which Jordan
is a party, recognizes the right to freedom of movement for refugees and asylum
seekers no less than for citizens.[35]
A state can only limit the right to freedom of movement for such persons when
they present a threat to national security and the restrictions are enacted in
law.[36]The difficult and primitive living conditions in the
border camps have resulted in at least one death.Three-year-old Aya Lu'i `Awni Wahdan burned
to death on April 9, 2005, and her mother and a neighbor suffered severe burns,
after a fire whipped up by strong winds incinerated four tents in the camp. Aya
had spent nearly her entire, short life in al-Ruwaishid camp.[37]

A Royal Order in 2003 gave 386 Palestinians who were at
al-Ruwaishid camp with their Jordanian spouses temporary asylum with their
families in Jordan
(but barred them from working).[38] The only
other Palestinians who have been allowed to leave al-Ruwaishid camp are people
who decided that it is preferable to return to Baghdad (see below).

Al-Karama Camp, 2003-2005

Jordan's
restrictive policies towards the Iraqi Palestinians were nowhere more apparent
than in al-Karama camp, located in the two-kilometer-wide no man's land (NML)
between Jordan and Iraq.
The NML is ordinarily used to provide physical space for the large number of
cars and trucks that are awaiting processing at either border post.Although Jordanian, Iraqi, and U.S. forces
operate inside the NML, neither Jordan nor Iraq currently claims sovereignty or
exercises jurisdiction over it, although both parties have a presence in their
respective half of the NML. Visits to the NML require coordination among
Jordanian, Iraqi, and U.S.
military officials.

Having opened its borders to Iraqi Palestinians briefly, in
May 2003, as described above, Jordan left all later arrivals stranded in the
NML, or turned them away at the border (the only relaxation of this was the
limited admission of people after al-Karama camp was closed in April 2005 see
below). Jordan's policies towards
Iraqi Palestinians, including forcible transfer from al-Ruwaishid to al-Karama
camp (which was effectively expulsion from Jordan), split families.

One such family is the Haddats (already mentioned above).
Khalid, age twenty-one, his brother Yusuf, age seventeen, and their sister `Ala',
age fourteen, are the children of a Jordanian mother, Simah `Uday and an Iraqi
Palestinian father who died in 2002 in Iraq.Mother and children fled Iraq
in May 2003, and when they reached the border Jordanian authorities put them in
al-Karama camp, where Simah `Uday stayed with the children for eight months
before leaving for Amman
to live with relatives. Simah `Uday and her children did not benefit from the
2003 Royal Order allowing Jordanian women married to Iraqi Palestinian refugees
to enter Jordan with their families, simply because they were in al-Karama camp
and not al-Ruwaishid camp. (The children were moved to al-Ruwaishid camp when
al-Karama closed in April 2005.)[39]

Zuhair Ibrahim, a fifty-nine-year-old taxi driver from
al-Dura neighborhood of Baghdad,
reached al-Ruwaishid camp with his family in May 2003. On May 27 he asked and
obtained permission from the Jordanian camp authorities to leave the camp and
visit his son at the Jordanian-Iraqi border to obtain some money. When he tried
to return, however, the camp officials denied him entry to al-Ruwaishid camp,
sending him to al-Karama camp instead. For the next two years, until the
closure of al-Karama camp in April 2005, he was separated from his family in al-Ruwaishid
camp, unable to visit or be with them. He saw his family only once, for fifteen
minutes, when he was hospitalized at al-Ruwaishid municipal hospital in 2004.[40] In
another case, Abu Hanan's two sons reached al-Ruwaishid camp in April 2003.
When Abu Hanan, his wife, and two daughters reached the border one month later,
they were denied entry and remained at al-Karama camp. For the next two years,
the family lived separated by just sixty kilometers, but unable to visit each
other. They were reunited upon the closure of al-Karama camp.[41]

In April 2004, youths in al-Ruwaishid camp clashed with the
Jordanian police and slightly injured a police captain with a rock. On July 21,
2004, the Jordanian authorities summarily forcibly transferred (expelled) thirteen
refugees from al-Ruwaishid camp to al-Karama camp, separating the youths from
their families. One of the deportees told Human Rights Watch that the police
told the group, "Now you will be staying at al-Karama, and you will never
return to Jordan."
That group of refugees remained at al-Karama camp until Jordanian authorities
closed it in April 2005. Before allowing them to leave, a Jordanian Ministry of
Interior official warned them: "If you ever even breathe the wrong way again,
we will return you to Baghdad
by force."[42]

No Readmittance to the Camps after Return to Baghdad Proves Non-Viable

The unbearable conditions in al-Ruwaishid and al-Karama
camps induced at least 250 Palestinians to return to an uncertain future in Baghdad rather than remain
in the camps.[43] Almost
all of the returns occurred in 2004. Fifty-three-year-old Nasir Hussain, a
painter, stated at the time of his return:

We have now waited so long here that we'd rather return to Iraq
and die in freedom than remain in a refugee camp where we have no life amidst
the snakes, scorpions, scorching heat and penetrating sandstorms. After a
year, I know that there is no solution for us here, even hope cannot be found
anymore.[44]

Many Iraqi Palestinian former al-Ruwaishid camp residents,
who had "voluntarily" returned to Baghdad in
2004, in April 2006 once again fled persecution in Baghdad
toward Jordan.
This time, Jordan closed its
borders, and Iraqi border guards prevented them from leaving Iraq. Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, one
of the Palestinians stranded on the Iraqi side of the Jordanian border, told
Human Rights Watch that the 2003 Royal Decree (mentioned above) had allowed him
to leave al-Ruwaishid to join his Jordanian wife in Amman, but barred him from working. Because
he could not support his family, he returned to Baghdad
in July 2004 so he could earn money to send to his wife and children in Amman, making it possible
for his children to go to school. Since the Samarra
bombing, however, he again had to flee Iraq because of the insecurity and
his inability to find work or a home. He went to rejoin his family, but this
time was blocked from entering Jordan
at all. Sitting in the makeshift desert camp, he told Human Rights Watch, "Now
I have no job and can't support them again."[45]

VI. Renewed Violence against Palestinians

Since the fall of the Saddam Hussein government in April
2003,Iraq has been wracked by high
levels of violence both from the insurgency and common crime. Politically
motivated attacks and criminal violence have frequently targeted different
ethnic and religious groups. In such an environment, it is often difficult to
determine in individual cases whether Iraqi Palestinians who were victims of
violence were specifically targeted because they were Palestinians, or because
they are Sunni, or just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Nonetheless, the evidence available clearly demonstrates that Palestinian
refugees are particularly vulnerable in Iraq.

Almost all of the Iraqi Palestinians whom Human Rights Watch
interviewed believed that their attackers had singled them out because they
were Palestinian. Their accounts suggest a pattern of targeted violence and
threats. They described how armed groups, either unidentified or believed to be
Shi`a militants, attacked, abducted, kidnapped and in some cases killed
friends, relatives, and neighbors. Mortar fire has been directed at their
homes. According to a PLO representative, armed groups have murdered at least
fifty-five Palestinians in Baghdad
since April 2003, although he was unable to provide details of the specific
circumstances of the killings.[46]

The Iraqi government has done little to stop such targeted
attacks, and the Ministry of Interior has itself been implicated in arbitrary
arrests, killings, and torture of Palestinian refugees. Those detained by Iraqi
security forces described being targeted for abuse and torture specifically
because they were Palestinians (see below).

Thirty-year-old Umm `Umar, the mother of two children age
ten and one from al-Dura neighborhood, and her brother-in-law Ra'id `Ali
Hussain, age twenty-nine, told Human Rights Watch that a group of armed men in
police uniforms kidnapped Umm `Umar'shusband, Muhammad `Ali Hussain, on July 24, 2004, from his shop in the
predominantly Shi`a Shaikh `Umar area of Baghdad. The kidnappers contacted
Ra'id to demand U.S.$10,000 ransom to release his brother, and Ra'id collected
the money from friends and relatives and paid it. However, Umm `Umar and Ra'id
`Ali Hussain found Muhammad `Ali Hussain's corpse at the Baghdad morgue on July 26; according to Umm
`Umar, her husband's body bore signs of torture.[47]

Another Baladiyyat resident, Fatima Ahmad, told the New York Times that armed men had
abducted her husband (not named in the article) from his barber shop on January
15, 2006. The article describes how his family located his body at the morgue
in March, "with gunshots to the head and torture wounds on his body." Fatima told the New
York Times, "He was known as a hard worker and a serious man, and his only
crime was being Palestinian."[48]

The Situation after the Samarra Bombing

Following the bombing of the revered Shi`a `Askariyya mosque
in Samarra on February 22, 2006, inter-ethnic violence and sectarian killings
exploded in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad.[49]
Armed groups from the Shi`a and Sunni communities killed hundreds of people in
numerous attacks that verged on open warfare. In tandem with escalating
inter-ethnic killings, Shi`a militias and some elements of the Iraqi security
forces targeted Palestinians. As explained by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond at
the time, "Some Iraqi parties consider the Palestinians as Sunni Muslims enemies,
although they are not involved in internal strife."[50]

Almost immediately after the bombing, unidentified militant
groups attacked the Palestinian buildings in al-Baladiyyat neighborhood of Baghdad with mortars and
gunfire. One person interviewed by Human Rights Watch at the Trebil refugee
camp described how on the day of the Samarra
bombing "and the next day, men wearing black clothes [a dress code associated
with radical Shi`a militias] came to known Palestinian locations and threatened
violence. These men in black outfits came to our housing unit, and we held them
off with guns." The U.S.
military sent troops to repel the attacks at the Baladiyyat buildings, home to
the largest concentration of Palestinians in Baghdad
(U.S.
troops had to intervene on several occasions to stop attacks on Palestinian
neighborhoods[51]), but the
mortar attacks continued.[52] Nawal
`Ali, age fifty-eight, told Human Rights Watch she had decided to flee Baghdad
after a late February mortar attack on their al-Baladiyyat apartment wounded
her son, Muhammad `Ali Hassan, age twenty-six, in the face and hands.[53]

According to the Palestinian representative to the United
Nations, Riad Mansur, at least ten Palestinians were killed in the immediate
aftermath of the Samarra
bombing.Human Rights Watch has been
able to collect detailed information on a number of those killings.

According to Palestinians who had fled Iraq,
assailants hit Samir Khalid al-Jayyab, a fifty-year-old Palestinian with a
prosthetic leg, on the head with a sword, and then shot him as many as twenty
times. According to his relatives, he had gone to collect his child from school
on the evening of February 22.[54]

On the morning after the Samarra shrine bombings, February
23, armed men abducted Ziyad `Abd al-Rahman Mahmud and Numayr `Abd al-Rahman
Mahmud, two brothers of the former Palestinian attach in Baghdad, Najah `Abd
al-Rahman Mahmud. The severely mutilated bodies of the two men were found two
days later at the Baghdad
morgue.[55] The same
week, a Palestinian imam, Nawaf Musa, was abducted from his mosque and
murdered.[56]

On the evening of March 16, Muhammad Hussain Sadiq, a
twenty-seven-year-old Palestinian barber, was murdered in the Shu`la
neighborhood of Baghdad,
next to al-Ghazaliyya quarter where he lived. Despite a bomb attack in Shu`la
the previous night, Muhammad had gone there to stock up as he was preparing to
flee to the Syrian border.According to
his relatives, a group of armed men strangled him to death after discovering
from his identification document that he was Palestinian. The armed men also
reportedly killed two Sunni men in the same neighborhood that night.[57]

According to people interviewed by Human Rights Watch,
unknown militants also threatened Palestinians in different Baghdad
neighborhoods, distributing flyers ordering them to leave Iraq immediately or be killed.A group calling itself the "Judgment Day
Brigades" distributed a flyer to Palestinian homes in al-Hurriyya, al-Dura,
al-Za`faraniyya, and al-Baladiyyat neighborhoods.It read in Arabic:

In the Name of God, the Merciful and Beneficent

Warning Warning Warning

To the treacherous Palestinians who collaborate with the
takfiri,[58]
Wahhabis,[59]
the usurpers,[60]
and the Baathists loyal to Saddam, especially those living in al-Dura.

We warn that we will eliminate you all if you do not
leave this area for good within ten days.

Some Palestinians also reported receiving similar messages
on their mobile phones, ordering them to leave Baghdad immediately or be killed.[62]

In other neighborhoods, Palestinians received reports from
friendly neighbors that suspicious strangers had come around to ask where
Palestinians were living. The neighbors advised the Palestinians to leave their
homes immediately.[63]

The rise in attacks, killings, and threatening flyers sent
shock waves throughout the Iraqi Palestinian community. UNHCR stated publicly
that the Palestinians of Baghdad were "in a state of shock," and that "this
panic may spread and lead to more Palestinians fleeing Baghdad."[64]
Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote to Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani on March 14 to express his concern about the rise in
violence against the Palestinian refugees, particularly "the limited capacity
of the Iraqi security forces to provide effective protection," and urged the
establishment of a special protection office to protect the Palestinian
refugees from further violence.[65]
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas also personally called President Talabani,
urging him to stop the killings.[66]

Iraq's
leading Shi`a religious authority, the Grand Ayatollah `Ali al-Sistani, on
April 30 issued a religious fatwa
(edict) prohibiting attacks against Palestinians and their property, stating,
"You should not harm the Palestinians, even those accused of crimes. The
civilian authorities should protect the Palestinians and prevent attacks
against them."[67]Shi`a Iraqis have largely respected Sistani's
religious edicts, but some of the more militant groups associated with rival
clerics such as Muqtada al-Sadr have not always abided by them.[68]

Despite the international attention, attacks against
Palestinians continue at the time of publication of this report. On June 1,
2006, UNHCR reported a "fresh spate of killings and kidnappings in Baghdad," with at least six Palestinians murdered in Baghdad in the last two weeks
of May.[69]Among the six new murders reported to UNHCR were
the May 28 killing of a Palestinian man who was taken out of his home by around
twenty armed men and executed in front of his family, and the May 15 abduction
and murder of a Palestinian resident of Baghdad
by unknown gunmen. UNHCR also reported the distribution of more threatening
flyers in Palestinian communities, warning Palestinians to leave Iraq within ten
days or "face the same fate as the criminals in other areas."[70]

Almost all of the Iraqi Palestinians whom Human Rights Watch
contacted in Baghdad
expressed an urgent wish to leave. One Palestinian interviewed over the phone
from Baghdad
told Human Rights Watch: "Things are bad, very bad. I want to leave, to any
country where there is some kind of stability. I am looking for a quick
solution. I cannot wait one or two months." A few minutes later he switched to
English to say, "I am very afraid, do you understand me? Anyone could come to
me to wipe me out, anything could happen to me," before asking to end the
interview.[71]
Palestinian representatives in Baghdad and
international journalists have confirmed that many Palestinians are seeking to
leave Baghdad.[72]

VII. Iraqi Ministry of Interior Registration
Requirements and Official Harassment of Palestinians

Torture and "Disappearances"

Almost all Iraqi Palestinians whom Human Rights Watch
interviewed complained that the Iraqi Ministry of Interior (MoI) discriminated
against them at the expense of their fundamental human rights. Mistreatment at
the hands of the MoI ranged from abusive language during residency registration
to being singled out for torture. Palestinians attributed this to the MoI being
under the control of Shi`a political factions. Some stated that their plight
with the MoI had worsened after a new government under Prime Minister Ibrahim
al-Ja`fari was installed after interim elections in January 2005.

For instance, the MoI's notorious "Wolf Brigade," a
paramilitary unit, on May 12, 2005, raided the Baladiyyat Palestinian buildings
and arrested four Iraqi Palestinians, including three brothers, whom they
claimed were terrorists. According to the men's lawyer, the Wolf Brigade
systematically tortured the four men for the twenty-seven days they held them
at brigade offices belonging to the MoI: "They were beaten with cables,
received electric shocks to the hands, wrists, fingers, ankles and feet,
received cigarette burns to the face, and were left in a room with water on the
floor while an electric current was applied to the water."[73]

Abdullah `Umar (not his real name), a resident of a village
in al-Madayin area of Baghdad,
described how Iraqi security agents arrested him at around 2 a.m. on March 27,
2005. He described how the security forces had come to the village with a list
of names of people to arrest, but when they saw Abdullah `Umar's Palestinian
documents they also arrested him. He stated that they detained him for
sixty-eight days at the Kut military base southeast of Baghdad, where they kept him blindfolded and
handcuffed, except for meal times and toilet trips. Out of the 120 detainees at
the base, he was singled out for targeted abuse: "They treated me even worse
because I was Palestinian. Whenever they came into the room, they would ask,
'Where is the Palestinian?' and beat me." Abdullah `Umar said they repeatedly
beat him on the bottom of his feet and on his back, and tortured him on several
occasions with electricity applied to his penis.[74]

Palestinians whom Human Rights Watch interviewed claimed
that many of their compatriots "disappeared" after the Iraqi security forces
arrested them. In one case documented by Human Rights Watch, a son described
how Iraqi National Guard troops arrested his seventy-five-year-old father,
Shuhda Abdullah Salin Abu Khusa, from his home in the Khalisa al-Wihda project
buildings in Baghdad,
together with another of Shuhda's sons, on April 27, 2005. When relatives went
to search for the missing men at the Kut military base, a National Guard
officer confirmed the arrest to them, stating, "We took them as suspects. It is
a routine investigation." A week later, a National Guard officer called the
family from the Kut base, saying that they were torturing their father, and
"you should look after him" a thinly veiled attempt to get a ransom from the
family. Two days later, the same officer informed the family that he had heard
Shuhda had died in custody. The guards released the detained brother, but
Shuhda remains missing, over a year after his arrest, with no confirmation of
his death in custody or news that he is still alive. The son who spoke to us
had fled Iraq
in search of answers: "I decided to leave because I want to make an
international case of my father. I can't get justice for my father inside Iraq. For me,
my most important cause is my father."[75]

Onerous Registration Procedures for Palestinian
Refugees

Under the Saddam Hussein government, Palestinians could
obtain and maintain their residency in Iraq without obstacles. After its
fall, however, the newly staffed MoI began treating Iraqi Palestinian refugees
as non-resident foreigners, and required them to obtain and renew their
residency permits from its Department of Residency. While many countries have
such registration requirements for non-resident foreigners, the Palestinians in
Iraq
are officially recognized as refugees, persons unable to return home, and
should not be subjected to the constant possibility of deportation. One Iraqi
Palestinian explained the problem to Human Rights Watch:

Back in Baghdad,
we have problems with our residency. Previously, we had a residency card. But
after Saddam, we were not accepted as residents anymore. We had to renew our
residency every two months.We had to go
to the residency department in Baghdad
[at the Ministry of Interior]. We had to bring the whole family every time,
from the oldest to a day-old baby. The attitudes of the bureaucrats varied
according to their mood. Sometimes, they told us to come back again after we
had been waiting there. It did not cost money to renew the residency, but if we
exceeded the residency, it cost the equivalent of U.S.$7 for each day for each
person who exceeded his residency.[76]

These new requirements placed on Palestinian refugees are
very burdensome. Every member of a family must personally appear at the
Department of Residency every one to three months to renew residency permits.
Families have to wait long periods of time to obtain the permits or renewals.
Sometimes they have to return to the department every day for two weeks before
receiving their permit. Interviewees described how officials at the Department
of Residency verbally abuse Palestinians and sometimes confiscate their
identity documents their only source of identification as Palestinian
refugees. Even when they did manage to renew their residency permit, the
permits were only valid for one or three months, requiring them to almost
immediately begin the process all over again.

Muhammad Hassan, a twenty-six-year-old Iraqi Palestinian
father of two children whose wife is Jordanian, described how the Department of
Residency refused to renew his residency permit in early 2006 because he had
not brought his one-month-old daughter with him. He said the officials verbally
abused him, telling him, "Why are you still here?Why don't you go back to Palestine? You are a group of terrorists, why
are you still here?"[77]
Fifty-eight-year-old Nawal `Ali explained how she had first tried to register
her family on June 15, 2005. She spent three days waiting in line with her
entire family, from 7 a.m. until the office closed at 3 p.m. Finally, they
managed to register for a period of one month. "The treatment there is very
bad," she recalled. "It is a fearful place." After renewing their residency
permits a few more times, in later 2005 they stopped going because her children
were too afraid to return to the office.[78]
Shihad Ahmad Taha tried to obtain residency permits for his family for several
weeks before giving up: "I went to the Department of Residency for
one-and-a-half months. Each time, they demanded other things to bring my
wife, to bring my children. So I stopped going for registration."[79]

For many Palestinians, the risks associated with going to
the MoI were simply too great given the hostility towards Palestinians and the
MoI's reported involvement in arrests, torture, and killings. Muhammad Salim
`Ali told Human Rights Watch, "There are registration requirements now. I did
not go there, because they treat the Palestinians badly."[80]
More recently, many Palestinians have stopped going to renew their residency after
rumors spread that the Department of Residency would confiscate their documents
and issue them deportation letters.[81]
Their concerns do not appear to be unfounded:One Palestinian refugee told Human Rights Watch that when he went to
renew his residency on March 15, 2006, the Department of Residency confiscated
all of his documents and issued him with a deportation order. He managed to get
an extension of his residency and to get his documents returned a few days
later, but only after bribing a Department of Residency official.[82]

Discrimination and abuse is not limited to the Ministry of
Interior. The Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM), which provides
important services for foreign populations in Iraq
and internally displaced persons within Iraq, has shown particular
hostility towards Palestinians. In October 2005, Minister of Displacement and
Migration Suhaila `Abd al-Ja`far held a press conference to announce that she
had requested the Council of Ministers and the MoI to return Palestinian refugees
in Iraq to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, stating: "The Ministry of
Interior should take the initiative in the expulsion of Palestinians from Iraq,
who got asylum in Iraq and don't hold Iraqi citizenship, to their lands in Gaza after the Israeli
withdrawal." She further stated that her demand for the expulsion of
Palestinians from Iraq came
after the involvement of Palestinians in terrorist attacks in Iraq in the
previous two years an unfounded accusation.[83]

Safety Concerns with Palestinian Identity Documents

Since the time of the Saddam Hussein government, Palestinian
refugees in Iraq have been
issued a blue "Republic
of Iraq: Palestinian
Travel Document" rather than ordinary green Iraqi passports. Many Palestinians
whom Human Rights Watch interviewed said Palestinians have been targeted on the
basis of being found in possession of these documents, in part because they are
so easily distinguishable from the passports for citizens. They said that
especially after the Samarra
mosque bombing, Shi`a militias had killed a number of Palestinians after
identifying them on the basis of their documents.[84]Muhammad Salim `Ali, who had fled to
al-Ruwaishid camp in 2003 and returned to Iraq in 2004, explained to Human
Rights Watch why he was fleeing Iraq again when interviewed at the Iraqi border
in April 2006:

We left Baghdad
because of the bad situation. If they know we are Palestinians, they kill us.
They see our [Palestinian Travel Document] IDs, and they kill us. Sixteen or
eighteen Palestinians have been killed this way, and more than a hundred
Palestinians have been arrested, and we have no information about them. The
Palestinians in al-Baladiyyat neighborhood are living like in a prison camp; we
can't move outside the Palestinian buildings anymore.[85]

One Palestinian told Human Rights Watch that he was actually
happy that his Palestinian Travel Document had been stolen from him:

It is better for me now that I don't have that document,
as it would cause me trouble. Most Palestinians prefer to move around in Iraq without
that Palestinian document, which proves they are Palestinian and puts them at
risk. To protect themselves, Palestinians sometimes hold forged Iraqi
identification documents and talk with an Iraqi accent.[86]

Another Palestinian described how the Iraqi police harassed
him after they discovered his Palestinian Travel Document:

Once, I was in my car, a new imported car. The police
checked my papers to see if they were legal. Then the police saw my Palestinian
ID, and they checked me from top to bottom. The policeman started to say that
Palestinians are terrorists. He said he could do anything he wanted to me, and
that no one would be concerned. I negotiated a bribe for him to let me go.[87]

VIII. Closed Borders and Lack of Resettlement Alternatives

Background: The Protection Gap for Palestinian
Refugees

Palestinian refugees are not the only population under
specific threat inside Iraq.
Many other minority communities, like the Mandaeans and Chaldeans, also find
themselves under frequent attack, and have fled the country in large numbers.
Ordinary Iraqis, Shi`a and Sunni, are also fleeing the armed conflict and
criminal violence inside Iraq:
there are probably from 500,000 to one million Iraqis currently living in
Jordan, and a similar number in Syria,
with a smaller number in Lebanon.
However, the Palestinian refugee situation is unique because of their inability
to seek refuge either in neighboring countries or elsewhere: neighboring
countries keep their borders largely closed to them, Israel refuses to allow them to
return, and resettlement options in other countries have been largely
unavailable to them. To understand their situation, a closer look at the legal
regime covering Palestinian refugees is necessary.

Since the adoption of the Convention relating to the Status
of Refugees in 1951 (the Refugee Convention), three "durable solutions" have
emerged under international law and refugee policy to enable refugees to put an
end to their refugee status and re-establish an effective link in a country.
These are voluntary repatriation to the refugee's country of origin, local
integration in the country of asylum, and resettlement in a third country.

UNHCR promotes voluntary repatriation (the voluntary return
of refugees to their home countries) as the optimal solution to refugee crises.
UNHCR has statutory responsibility to seek, promote, and facilitate the
voluntary return of refugees to their country of origin.[88]

The right to return to one's own country is a fundamental
human right, which is recognized in several international human rights
instruments.[89] The right
to return is most clearly enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) under the right to freedom of movement, which includes
the right to enter one's own country.[90]
The basis for the right to return under international refugee law can be found
in the Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, various regional refugee
instruments, U.N. Resolutions, and Conclusions of UNHCR's Executive Committee
(ExCom).[91]There
are also specific pronouncements pertaining to the Palestinian refugees, the
most important of which are the U.N. General Assembly resolutions that uphold
the right of the Palestinian refugees to return.[92]

To this end, Human Rights Watch has long urged Israel to recognize the right to return for
those Palestinians and their descendants who fled or were expelled from
territory that is now within the State of Israel or the OccupiedPalestinianTerritories, and who have
maintained appropriate links with that territory. This is a right that persists
even when sovereignty over the territory is contested or has changed hands.[93]

The Palestinian National Authority (PA) has repeatedly
stated its willingness to accept in Gaza those
Palestinian refugees fleeing Iraq,
and to issue them with PA passports. Israel
has refused to participate in such a solution, which it can prevent through its
control of the borders of Gaza and the West Bank. UNHCR twice approached Israel to encourage it to allow Palestinian
refugees from Iraq to return
once in 2003 with a group of six to eight Palestinian refugees with direct
ties to Gaza, and a second time in 2006 when it
gave Israel a list of
Palestinian refugees with direct ties to Gaza
who were stuck at the Iraqi-Jordanian border. Israel
in both instances denied UNHCR's request to let the Palestinian refugees enter Gaza.[94]

Muhammad Abu Bakr, director-general of the Department of
Refugee Affairs of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Jordan, told Human Rights Watch in April 2006:
"Our position concerning the [Palestinian] refugees in Iraq and elsewhere is that either we receive
them inside Palestinian National Authority territories or the [Palestinians
fleeing Baghdad] stay near the border and return
to Baghdad."[95]He
said that the PA was willing to consider interim solutions "to see the easing
of their humanitarian suffering," but otherwise stood firmly by its position on
the Palestinian refugees.[96]

The durable solution of local integration was never open to
Palestinians in Iraq
and has not become easier under the new Iraqi government. The success of local
integration depends on several factors, including the willingness of the
refugees to settle locally and the receptiveness and commitment of the host
country and local population towards the integration of the refugee population.[97]

The third durable solution is resettlement, the transfer of
a refugee from the country of first asylum to a third country that has agreed
to provide the refugee with protection.[98]Resettlement is an appropriate protection strategy for refugees whose
safety and security cannot be secured in the country of first asylum or who
have special humanitarian needs that cannot be met in the country of first
asylum. It is also an appropriate durable solution for those who are unable or
unwilling to return to their own country or to locally integrate in their
country of asylum.[99]
Resettlement is also a mechanism whereby wealthier countries can share the
responsibility for the broader refugee problem.[100]

The PLO and the Arab League have rejected in principle and
actively discouraged in practice local integration or third-country
resettlement of Palestinian refugees. Their view is that local integration or
resettlement would negate the right to return of the resettled refugees.[101] The Arab
countries hosting large Palestinian refugee populations point to Israel's legal
obligation to permit the refugees' return to justify their refusal to integrate
the Palestinian refugees and afford them rights equal to their own citizens. Only
Jordan
has granted its Palestinian refugee population citizenship, breaking with the
practice of other Arab states.

Jordan
and Syria have (with some
exceptions) refused entry to Palestinians who attempt to flee Iraq, in violation of the international
legal prohibition against refoulement.
When these two countries made temporary exceptions to their policies of
refusal, they conditioned admission of Palestinian refugees on their
confinement to camps, for example al-Ruwaishid camp in Jordan in 2003, and
al-Hol camp in Syria in 2006 (for which, see below). Because of the widely
observed policy against resettlement of Palestinian refugees, these camp
residents have already waited longer than other refugees fleeing Iraq,
such as the Iranian Kurds, for access to third-country resettlement.[102]

Most western states, including the United States and the countries of
the European Union, similarly decline to consider Palestinian refugees for
resettlement, except for a few "humanitarian cases."[103]
At the time of the publication of this report, Human Rights Watch had learned
that Canada
was considering for resettlement the Palestinian refugees at al-Ruwaishid, but
had not made a final decision. However, UNHCR anticipates that Canada will not
be able to grant resettlement to all of the Palestinians at al-Ruwaishid,
leaving at least some of the Palestinians in continuing limbo.

The 2006 Jordan Border Issue

In March 2006, new groups of Iraqi Palestinians, fleeing the
intensified killings and death threats in Baghdad,
sought refuge in Jordan.
A group of eighty-nine Palestinians, including many women and forty-two
children, arrived at the Iraqi-Jordanian border on March 19, 2006, accompanied
for their protection by three members of the activist group the Christian
Peacemaking Team. They spent the first night on the Iraqi side of the border,
sleeping on their buses. After calls to the Iraqi MoI, the group was allowed to
cross the Iraqi border the next morning. However, as soon as the group entered
the NML, the Jordanian authorities closed the border and prevented the group
from reaching the Jordanian border post. One of the group told us:

The Jordanian soldiers prevented us from getting off the
bus. They brought tanks and Humvees with Jordanian soldiers. They obliged us to
return and we stayed next to the [Iranian] Kurdish camp [located in the NML].
We stayed there for four days in the desert with no food.[104]

The Jordanian authorities completely shut down their border
for four days, refusing to allow anyone to cross the border until the Iraqi
authorities returned the Palestinian refugees to the Iraqi side of the border.[105] After
four days, on March 23, at about 3 p.m., armed Iraqi soldiers ordered the
Palestinian refugees to return to the Iraqi side. The Palestinian refugees,
defenseless and intent on avoiding a violent confrontation in which many women
and children might be caught up, returned peacefully to the Iraqi side of the
border, where Iraqi authorities housed them in an abandoned building formerly
used as a horse stable. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) provided them
with tents and humanitarian assistance. UNHCR assistance arrived on the same
day as the IRCS, and UNHCR continued to
provide assistance throughout.[106]

Other Palestinians soon joined the original eighty-nine, and
the group ultimately grew to more than 200 persons. The Iraqi border
authorities tried to stem the influx, refusing to allow new arrivals to enter
the makeshift camp established for the Palestinian refugees, instead forcing
them to sleep out in the open. When the last group of fifty-four Palestinian
Iraqis arrived at the border on April 23, the Iraqi border authorities told
them to return to Baghdad,
because the Iraqi commander of the border post had decided not to let any more
Palestinians join the camp.[107] The new
arrivals were forced to stay at the border, until the women and children in the
group were moved into the camp during a sandstorm.[108]
However, the men were forced to remain outside the camp, sleeping in an
abandoned trailer at the border post.

In an interview with Human Rights Watch, the
secretary-general of Jordan's
Ministry of Interior, Mukhaimar F. Abu Jamous, said that Jordan would not alter its policy
of refusing entry to Iraqi Palestinians. He said that Jordan already
had a massive Palestinian refugee burden and could not take on additional
Palestinians. The official said that because Iraqi Palestinians had no
passport, only a Palestinian travel document, there was concern that once Jordan accepted Iraqi Palestinians, they would
be unable to leave Jordan
again, unlike ordinary Iraqis.[109] To
support this, the UNHCR has learned that the Iraqi border officials have
stamped the travel documents of Iraqi Palestinians leaving Iraq with
"right to exit, no right to return." The Iraqi MoI also stated to the UNHCR
that Palestinians who have fled will not have the right to return to Iraq.[110]
Abu Jamous of the Jordanian Ministry of Interior stressed that the Iraqi
Palestinian issue should be resolved through regional burden sharing, but that
even with international financial assistance Jordan would not allow the Iraqi
Palestinians to enter its territory.[111]

Syria's Offer to Take Palestinian Refugees

With the renewed crisis at the Jordanian border, the newly
elected Hamas-led Palestinian National Authority urged countries in the region
to take in Palestinians fleeing Iraq,
seeming to break with the position of the PLO that the Iraqi Palestinians
should either return to Palestine or remain in Iraq.During his first official visit to Syria, the newly-appointed
Palestinian Authority foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahar, announced that he had
received a commitment from the Syrian authorities to accept the Palestinians
stranded at the Iraqi-Jordanian border.[112]

The Syrian offer was a departure from its previous practice
of sealing its borders to Palestinians, much like Jordan. It had previously allowed
in a group of nineteen Palestinians, stranded at the Iraqi-Syrian border from
October 4 to November 21, 2005, to go to its al-Hol refugee camp (a UNHCR-run
camp mostly holding Iraqis), but only after extensive negotiations between
UNHCR and the Syrian authorities.[113]

On May 9, 2006, the International Organization for Migration
moved the more than 250 Iraqi Palestinians stuck at the Iraqi-Jordanian border
to Syria,
and Syrian authorities transferred them to al-Hol refugee camp. They should
then receive assistance from UNRWA, probably after being moved to an
UNRWA-managed camp where movement is less restricted than at al-Hol camp.[114] The
Syrian authorities then allowed an additional group of thirty-seven Iraqi
Palestinians who had fled directly from Baghdad
to the Syrian border to cross the next day.However, since May the Syrians again have closed the Syrian-Iraqi border
to Iraqi Palestinians, and as of the time of this report just under 200 Iraqi
Palestinians, including children and pregnant women, are stranded at the NML at
the Syrian border.[115] By
contrast, Iraqi citizens continue to enter Jordan
and Syria in large numbers,
showing the discriminatory nature of Jordan
and Syria's policies towards
persons fleeing Iraq.

IX. Conclusion: The Need for a Regional Solution
and International Burden Sharing

The current approach of the states bordering Iraq keeping their borders closed to
Palestinian refugees and refusing to consider alternative options such as third
country resettlement is severely affecting the ability of Palestinian
refugees to seek safety outside Iraq.

The primary responsibility for protecting Palestinian
refugees inside Iraq
falls on the Iraqi government, which has an international obligation to prevent
and punish human rights abuses against all persons within its territory,
including non-nationals. It is imperative that the Iraqi government take
immediate steps to bring security to the Palestinian refugee population in Iraq, and end
discriminatory and abusive practices at the Ministry of Interior and other
government branches. The United States-led Multinational Forces in Iraq also remain responsible for providing
security in much of Iraq,
and this must include the protection of minority populations at risk, such as
Palestinian refugees.

Neighboring countries must respect the rights of Palestinian
refugees to seek safety and asylum outside Iraq
as long as they face insecurity and persecution inside Iraq. The burden of providing
safety and asylum should not fall on a single neighboring country (Jordan and Syria being the preferred countries
of flight for the Palestinians), but should be shared by countries in the
region. Israel too must not
wait for a resolution of the broader Palestinian refugee issue and should
instead permit Iraqi Palestinian refugees with direct ties to Gaza to return to areas now administered by
the Palestinian National Authority.

The broader international community also needs to
participate in sharing the burden: it should provide financial assistance to
countries that take Palestinian refugees from Iraq and consider cases of
vulnerable Palestinian refugees for humanitarian resettlement.While states might be reluctant to offer third-country
resettlement because of the PLO and Arab League position against it, the dire
situation of Palestinians fleeing Iraq cannot be ignored. The
humanitarian evacuation program of Kosovars out of Macedonia in 1999 could serve as a
model for resettlement conceived not as a durable solution but as a temporary
expedient to preserve first asylum and save lives.[116]

X. Acknowledgements

This report is based on a three-week research mission
conducted to Jordan and the Iraqi border during April and May 2006 by Peter
Bouckaert, Emergencies Director at Human Rights Watch, Bill
Frelick, Refugee Director at Human Rights Watch, and Christoph Wilcke, Jordan and Saudi Arabia researcher
at Human Rights Watch. The report was written by Peter Bouckaert, and reviewed by
Bill Frelick, Christoph
Wilcke, Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of the Middle
East and North Africa division of Human Rights
Watch, James Ross, Senior Legal
Advisor, and Ian Gorvin, consultant to the Program Division.Human Rights Watch thanks the staff of UNHCR
in Jordan and Iraq for their
cooperation with our research mission. This report was prepared for production
by Assef Ashraf and Tarek Radwan,
associates for the Middle East and North
Africa Division, Leeam Azulay-Yagev
and Thodleen Dessources, associates
for the Program division, Andrea Holley,
manager of outreach and publications, and Fitzroy
Hepkins, mail manager.

[2]
See "Palestinians Targeted in Iraq,"
IRIN News, May 5, 2006 (citing the
Iraqi government estimate of a Palestinian refugee population of 34,000); and
UNHCR, "Palestinians Leave Desert Camp for Baghdad,"
May 26, 2004 (estimating the Palestinian refugee population of Iraq
at between 34,000 and 42,000).Prior to
the 2003 conflict, estimates of the Palestinian refugee population in Iraq varied
from 34,000 to over 90,000.See U.S.
Committee for Refugees, Iraq
Country Report 2002 (estimating 34,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq), and Palestinian
Refugees in Iraq, Department of Refugee Affairs, Palestine Liberation
Organization, 1999 (estimating 92,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq).A post-2003 war registration campaign by
UNHCR, conducted in 2003, registered 23,000 Palestinian refugees in Baghdad, but acknowledged that the actual population of
Palestinian refugees in Iraq
was substantially higher.

[3]
Israeli historian Benny Morris researched the displacement of the Arab
population during the 1948-49 hostilities, and in an authoritative work
provided the date and the reasons for the flight of the Arab civilian
population from 369 cities, towns and villages throughout Palestine.Morris uses the
following categories to describe the "decisive" reason for depopulation:
expulsion by Jewish forces; abandonment on Arab orders; fear of Jewish attack
or being caught up in the fighting; military assault by Jewish troops;
psychological warfare by the Haganah/Israel Defense Force to induce flight
(known as "whispering" campaigns); and influence of the fall of or flight from
a neighboring town. Morris, The Birth of
the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, p. viii.

[9]See Human Rights Watch, Erased in a Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians
(New York:
Human Rights Watch, 2002), pp. 100-101.In July 2002, an official from the Iraq-affiliated Arab Liberation Front
told reporters that Saddam Hussein had provided an estimated U.S.$20 million in
aid to Palestinians in the OccupiedPalestinianTerritories
since the outbreak of the second Intifada. Sky TV Broadcast of July 17, 2002.

[10]
"Saddam says Palestinian Solution Must Include Refugee Right to Return," Agence France-Presse, January 16, 2001.

Two main principles, not necessarily compatible, seem
to have influenced the attitudes of host Arab states The first was to express
solidarity with and sympathy toward the refugees.This was illustrated in the willingness, at
least in theory, of the Arab governments to give the Palestinians residency,
though not political rights on the same footing as their own citizens. The
second principle was to emphasize the preservation of Palestinian identity by
maintaining their status as refugees, which would prevent Israel from
evading responsibility for their plight. [Arab states] normally resisted
resettlement and naturalization as a solution to the refugee problem.The exception was Jordan, which granted the
Palestinian refugees Jordanian nationality.

[29]
Flight to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait was impossible because of the lasting
resentment against Palestinians following the 1991 Gulf War, when PLO chief
Yasser Arafat had embraced Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia
expelled Palestinians en masse following the war. Iran was an unfamiliar country for
most Iraqi Palestinians, and seen as hostile because of its Shi`a identity. Turkey was far
away and difficult to enter.Little is
known about Iraqi Palestinian movement to Syria. The main movement was
towards Jordan.

[31]
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 189 U.N.T.S. 150, entered
into force April 22, 1954; Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, 606
U.N.T.S. 267, entered into force October 4, 1967.

[32]
See Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, The Refugee in
International Law (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996 2nd ed.), pp. 123-24;
see also ExCom Conclusion No. 22, Protection of Asylum-Seekers in Situations of
Large-Scale Influx, 1981 (noting that persons who "owing to external
aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing
public order in either part of, or the whole of their country of origin or
nationality are compelled to seek refuge outside that country" are
asylum-seekers who must be "fully protected," and "the fundamental principle of
non-refoulement including non-rejection at the frontier-must be scrupulously
observed.").

[35]International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICCPR), G.A. res.
2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966),
entered into force January 3, 1976.The
Human Rights Committee, the body that monitors compliance with the ICCPR, has
recognized that the ICCPR must apply "without discrimination between citizens
and aliens." The term "aliens" includes asylum seekers and refugees. The
Committee further notes that, "Aliens have the full right to liberty and
security of the person.... They have the right to liberty of movement and free
choice of residence.... These rights of aliens may be qualified only by such
limitations as may be lawfully imposed under the Covenant."Human Rights Committee,"The Position of Aliens Under the
Covenant,"General Comment 15, 1986
para. 2.

[36]
The ICCPR, arts. 12(1) & (3),provide for the principle of freedom of movement in the following
manner:"Everyone lawfully within the
territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of
movement and freedom to choose his residence." This right to freedom of
movement can only be restricted as "provided by law" if "necessary to protect
national security, public order, public health, or morals, or the rights and
freedoms of others."

In sum, the right can be understood in the following
manner:

Every non-citizen (including an asylum seeker or
refugee) who is lawfully present in a country must enjoy the right to freedom
of movement;
Limits enacted in law can be placed on this right if a non-citizen is not
lawfully present;
Limits enacted in law can be placed on this right if a non-citizen presents a
threat to national security, public order, public health, etc.;
States cannot discriminate between the freedom of movement rights of
non-citizens and citizens, unless non-citizens present a threat to national
security, in which case the limits on the right must be enacted in law; and
States cannot discriminate between the freedom of movement rights of
different categories of non-citizens.

[54]
Human Rights Watch interview with camp leader, Trebil camp, April 30, 2006;
Human Rights Watch interview with Haji Mahmud Hussain, Trebil camp, April 30,
2006.The witnesses interviewed based
their description of the killing on the accounts of eyewitnesses who had seen
the killing.

[58]
In Iraq,
the term "takfiri" has become "shorthand for insurgents who kill Shi'a."See Dexter Filkins, "Armed Groups Propel Iraq Towards Chaos,"
New
York Times,
May 24, 2006. See also Gilles Kepel, Jihad:
The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge,
Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 2002), p. 31:"The
term derives from the word kufr (impiety);
it means a Muslim who is, or is declared to be, impure: by takfir he is excommunicated in the eyes of the Community of the
Faithful.For those who interpret
Islamic law literally and rigorously, one who is impious to this extent can no
longer benefit from the protection of law.According to the consecrated expression, 'his blood is forfeit,' and he
is condemned to death."

[59]
Wahhabism is an extremely conservative Sunni interpretation of Islam, named
after Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), who sought to cleanse Islam of
"superstitions" and return it to the "pure" form practiced by the Prophet
Muhammad and his companions.Its
adherents range from apolitical traditionalists (Wahhabism is closely
associated with Saudi Arabia's
rulers) to jihadi groups such as al-Qaeda. In the context of the flyer,
Wahhabism is used as a slur, implying Sunni terrorists.

[60]
This is probably a reference to the widely held belief in Iraq that
Palestinians "usurped" property and other benefits under the government of
Saddam Hussein.

[88]
The basis for these three solutions can be found in international refugee law.UNHCR is mandated in its Statute to seek
permanent solutions for refugees, including voluntary repatriation or
assimilation into new national communities.Under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee
Convention), 189 U.N.T.S. 150, 1951, entered
into force April 22, 1954, international protection for refugees only
ceases once a refugee has "re-availed himself of the protection of the country
of his nationality"; "acquired a new nationality, and enjoys the protection of
the country of his new nationality"; "voluntarily re-established himself in the
country which he left or outside which he remained"; or for a "person who has
no nationality he is, because of the circumstances in connexion with which he
has been recognized as a refugee have ceased to exist, able to return to the
country of his former habitual residence." The Refugee Convention, art.
1(c).Article 34 of the Refugee
Convention requires that states shall "as far as possible facilitate the
assimilation and naturalization of refugees."

[89]
For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in article 13(2) states
that "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to
return to his country."

[90]
ICCPR, article 12(4).The Human Rights
Committee, the international body that monitors compliance with the ICCPR, in
its General Comment on the freedom of movement, "considers that there are few,
if any, circumstances in which deprivation of the right to enter one's own
country could be reasonable. A State party must not, by stripping a person of
nationality or by expelling an individual to a third country, arbitrarily
prevent this person from returning to his or her own country."Human Rights Committee, General Comment 27,
Freedom of Movement (Art. 12), CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.9, November 2, 1999, para.
20.

[91]
The authoritative 1985 ExCom Conclusion on Voluntary Repatriation confirms "the
basic rights of persons to return voluntarily to the country of origin," while
the 1994 General Conclusion on International Protection "calls upon countries
of origin, countries of asylum, UNHCR and the international community as a
whole to do everything possible to enable refugees to exercise freely their
right to return home in safety and dignity."

[92]
Most often cited is the 1948 resolution 194 (III) that established the United
Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine,
which states at paragraph 11:

the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live
at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest
practicable date and that compensation should be paid for the property of those
choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under
principles of international law and in equity, should be made good by the
Government or authorities responsible.

[93]Human Rights Watch's policy on the right to
return is set out at: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/israel/return/,
and also in letters sent in 2000 to then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the
late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, and then U.S.-President Bill Clinton,
available online at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2000/12/22/isrlpa579.htm.
As noted in the latter, issues to be considered include returnee rights to
settlement in the vicinity or to compensation when the former home no longer
exists or is occupied by an innocent third party; and that claims of a right to
return are resolved fairly, that individual holders of the right are permitted
freely and in an informed manner to choose whether to exercise it, that returns
proceed in a gradual and orderly manner, and that any redress for past
injustices not create new ones.

[94]
Human Rights Watch interviews with UNHCR, diplomatic officials and PLO
officials, Jordan, April 2006.In most
of the Middle East, UNRWA has the primary
mandate over Palestinian refugees, to the exclusion of UNHCR.However, UNRWA has only an assistance
mandate, and not a protection mandate, so Palestinian refugees are not
explicitly protected by many of the protections of the Refugee Convention.Iraq
declined UNRWA assistance in 1949, so unlike Palestinian refugees in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Syria,
and Lebanon, Palestinian refugees
in Iraq
do fall under the mandate of UNHCR.